Abstract

Many calculi for describing interactive behaviour involve names, name-abstraction and name-restriction. Milner's reflexive action calculi provide a framework for exploring such calculi. It is based on names and name-abstraction. We introduce an alternative framework, the symmetric action calculi, based on names, co-names and name-restriction (or hiding). Name-abstraction is intepreted as a derived operator. The symmetric framework conservatively extends the reflexive framework. It allows for a natural intepretation of a variety of calculi: we give interpretations for the -calculus, the I -calculus and a variant of the fusion calculus. We then give a combinatory version of the symmetric framework, in which name-restriction also is expressed as a derived operator. This combinatory account provides an intermediate step between our non-standard use of names in graphs, and the more standard graphical structure arising from category theory. To conclude, we briey illustrate the connection ...

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